6 Mistakes You’re Probably Making When Cooking Rice

For many home cooks, the way to cook rice is on the stove. One of the biggest pitfalls when it comes to making rice is having a finished product that comes out gloppy, clumpy, and sticky when you certainly didn't intend to make sticky rice to begin with. There's one habit above all others that will result in this type of mush and that's stirring your rice while it's cooking. Rice should be stirred once, and only once. When you introduce the rice to the water, it's important to give it a single stir to ensure that the grains don't clump together via Eat This Not That. Breaking up potential clumps will help you avoid yielding little nuggets when the rice is all finished cooking. After that, give it a rest with the stirring. Stirring the rice will cause the grains to release their natural starches into the water, increasing the likelihood of the whole batch turning into a glutinous mess.

Mistakes Everyone Makes When Cooking Rice

Cooking too fast causes the grains to burst open like a butterflied steak, which not only releases starch, but also ruins the texture of your meal. Even if you're aiming for porridge or pudding, ruptured grains are to be avoided. Automatic rice boilers are designed to only just reach boiling temperature , so anything past that is too much. If you're boiling rice, don't even think of lifting the lid as it cooks. Not only will lifting the lid lengthen the cooking time as it releases pressure and steam, but it can also seriously mess up the finished product.

Not washing your rice

When you lift the lid, the carefully calculated rice-water ratio is thrown of which will result in dry and under-cooked rice. Unless you're adding seasoning or checking how much water remains, leave it alone. Let the rice cook; it knows what it's doing. Another huge mistake many people make is stirring the rice as it boils. Unless you're making risotto, don't touch the rice while it's cooking. Stirring rice while it's in the pot causes starch to activate and prevents the formation of steam pockets; in layman's terms, it's going to make your rice mushy. While that smooth creamy texture is coveted in risotto, you want to avoid it when making regular rice. Many people don't use enough water which can leave the rice dry and undercooked.

Mistakes Everyone Makes When Cooking Rice

The amount of water needed to perfectly cook different types of rice varies slightly, so you should do some research about how much water to add before cooking. If you're still unsure whether you've added enough water, you can always try using the knuckle method. Put your rice in the pot and fill it with water. When you rest your finger on top of the rice, the water should come up to the top of your first knuckle. Popular opinion holds that salt makes water boil faster, but the difference isn't really noticeable. But one important thing the salt does is interfere with the process by which starches link and connect , becoming gelatin. Many professional chefs prefer to salt their water to near-oceanic levels of salinity. It's your kitchen, so go hog wild. In addition to preventing gelatinization, salt also has the interesting byproduct of being delicious. Adding salt to your rice water is important for getting your rice right. Melting butter in the water also helps with flavor.

A bay leaf, dried peppers, citrus zest, dried mushroom slices, nuts, even a cinnamon stick will add depth and color to the rice. The boiling water will help both rehydrate and unlock essential oils in rugged spices like cinnamon and bay, and the flavorful pepper innards will easily separate from the thick outer skin without a lot of chopping or dicing. And, hey, why not cook with stock instead of water? Splash a little bit of wine in there every now and then? That'll help with the existential horror and boredom of watching rice cook. Yay, wine! You wouldn't swap apples for potatoes and still call it apple pie. So why would you use short grains in place of long wild rice? Different rices have different attributes , and they behave differently when cooked. It's not that it'll negatively affect the taste so much as it'll affect the texture and consistency. When done correctly, fresh cooked rice will be drier on the top than on the bottom. It's crucial that the rice be allowed to sit off the heat for at least minutes, in order for moisture to evenly distribute itself through the dish.

Cooking is hard work! Fluffing the rice before that time will result in a sticky fork and clumps of inconsistently moist rice. Not all rice is created equal. There are thousands of varieties of rice grown throughout the world, and you can't cook each one the same way.